The AVIA Austin Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

Very tough start to the swim. Very confined space with 92 of us in the deep water start. I though my swim was worse, I had estimated 17 minutes for the swim. Forgot to start my watch until almost to the halfway point!

Until my swim performance increases significantly I will make sure to start further back in the pack. Start my watch at the gun.

This is a long distance transition. I jogged the distance from the swim to the rack. Rinsed and dried feet, put on shoes, belt, glasses and helmet. Got stuck behind several slow movers just before the bike mount.

Get Tri bike shoes and start training to do a flying mount with shoes on the bike.

I feel this is definitely my strength, despite not road biking much at all. I passed several people and was not passed excessively. In the tight corners I speed through while most others are going considerably slower (attribute this to my mountain biking skills). The wind was a factor, it definitely slowed us down a bit on certain sections of the course. I still feel like I am holding back quite a bit to conserve for my nemesis - the run!

Train more on the road bike and ride harder.

I knew my swim was off pace and I thought my bike was slow (due to high winds), so I decided to try something new - yes, breaking rule number 1. Crossing the 1st Street bridge on the last 1/4 mile I slipped out of my shoes (road shoes, not Tri shoes). I did a very quick flying dismount and ran to the rack quickly. I break rule number 1 again, I decided I would run sockless! I had not trained sockless more than on a couple of short runs. I did get lock laces, so they helped mt T2 time.

Not much, I felt this was pretty flawless. Perhaps get some Tri bike and tri running shoes.

As stated before I thought my swim and bike put me off pace, I thought I was actually 5 minutes behind my goal. I decided I would try my best to maintain a pace and not walk at all. Thankfully the course was almost completely flat with a small hill to the water spot near Jack and Adam's. When I saw my family within the last half mile I kicked a bit harder.

Nothing comes to mind.

Walk around the finish, drink coconut water, have some fruit and a couple of wraps. Hang out with family and Team LIVESTRONG.


Swim skill.


Excellent event, lots of freebies at the end, nice shirt, hat and finisher medals. Great crowd, great course. To race up and down Congress Street is really cool.